A/N: Thank you to the Anon who let me know the chapter posted as only coding. I have no clue what went wrong but I hope this fixes it.
It's been such a long time since the last update I'm so sorry. Life has been hectic. Now without further begging of forgiveness, enjoy!
Disclaimer: I do not own Marvel or any characters thereof.
More Bad News
Bruce sat on the floor, shining a concentrated light into Sigyn's pupils while carrying on a conversation with Stark. Sigyn cut off all conversation in the room by laughing, low at first. Her eyes had opened without Bruce holding her lids open and he retracted his hand and dropped the light on his lap.
Sigyn's eyes, once startled, before memories dulled their shine to something more reminiscent. Natasha kept her eyes on Sigyn, watching as the woman slowly slipped into laughter. A soft pealing noise like the tinkling of a champagne glass being toasted at a party.
Natasha traded glances with Cassie, who had been called by JARVIS as soon as the trio had blasted into Stark's penthouse. Sigyn's teleportation abilities were quite rusty if the tingling in Natasha's hands and forearms persisted. If felt like a vice was cutting off her circulation even though Cassie had given her the all clear.
Now Cassie was kneeling by Sigyn, who was the one to crack Stark's immaculate fireplace in their meteoric entry.
It was really only in use during the winter months.
Natasha concerned herself with deciding if Sigyns inappropriate response proved Loki-esque in nature. By the time Thor had barged his way out of the elevator Sigyn had calmed down and was quietly pensive. Tony was talking with Bruce on the radiation signature SHIELD had picked up on before the anomaly.
Anomaly didn't even cover it. There was no word, even in Russian Natasha could use to sum up what the hell that life experience was. Good thing it wasn't an experience one had while dying.
"Sigyn recognized it." The anomaly. It was a mere whisper but hers was the only statement being made. All questions died in the stale, dusty air.
SHIELD was classifying it as a lab accident. Clint did not look happy talking to whoever was on the other end of his phone. He also kept his back turned not wanting anyone to listen in.
Adrenaline subsided and confusion set in. Natasha focused on Thor and Sigyn with everyone else since no one decided to bring attention to what they were all thinking.
Sigyn had known what happened and her silence was worrying.
Thor was the first to direct a question at her. They were all used to supplying the answers after missions or catastrophes, collaborating as only time spent with each other could create. Thor was finally the first quick on the uptake to realize Sigyn was no part of that dynamic.
"What did you do?"
Natasha didn't think accusing the woman would get them anywhere, but who was she to place judgement on how they communicated?
Her and Clint executed people for a living and threw platonic punches when frusterated, they were not prime examples of healthy communication skills.
She took a seat beside Clint on the half of the leather couch that hadn't been obliterated. Nat gave one cursory glance at Stark to make sure the vein in his head wasn't throbbing. Satisfied he was keeping his calm, Natasha turned her attention to the Avenger who was in danger of turning in the rage monster they were all thankful was retaining a sombre expression.
Bruce and Thor were closest to Sigyn's concerned gaze and seemed her point of focus. Blood pooled in the corners of her mouth so she had to swallow, and one of her cheeks was swelling. Other than those, Natasha couldn't discern any other injuries.
Bruce had said something about a concussion earlier, but Sigyn spoke clearly and to the point.
"We've met him before, Thor. On one of our ill-advised journeys to Jotunheim."
"That could be hundreds of years of ill-advised trips we're speaking of. There have been many."
To Natasha it didn't look like Thor was proud of how many there were. Either the countless times he had thought of attacking his adopted brother's race or watching Loki kill them himself, Natasha did not look long enough to decide. The floor was more appealing due to its lack of emotion.
"I must speak with Thor alone."
Nat knew before Stark spoke that wouldn't fly. With any of them.
"No." He sighed, rubbing the bridge of his nose. "You just destroyed my living room and you're using my equipment. I think I get to know what's going on."
"He is one that should be dead."
Thor clenched his fists. "Are you sure of this?!"
Sigyn blinked. A collective breath was taken at the rage in the thunder god's face. She did not back down, but instead used Bruce's arm to raise herself and stand? "If I lie may lightning strike me down."
Natasha did not take her eyes off the Asgardian. She knew Thor would not attack, not here. Sigyn was another beast Nat would rather not learn the strengths of.
An unspoken understanding went between them, for as soon as it roared its ugly head their anger dissipated into the dusty air. Sigyn bowed her head and the floor swallowed the bulk of her words, leaving them empty sounds void of feeling. "It was the same presence of the one Odin had executed for the attempt on your lives, one he had tried to blame on the lady Sif and I."
"Still not getting how we can help because I'll be damned if we're leaving this one up to Asgard if they've already fucked up." Clint's bluntness was never received well. This time he was on the same page as everyone else, however, which meant this was officially encroaching on Avenger territory and screw what SHIELD orders.
Only Sigyn reacted badly, almost annoyed he didn't grasp the danger this Jotun posed. Natasha was beginning to. Sigyn mentioned Sif, and if that honoured warrior had almost died at the hands of a Jotun, which didn't seem a huge feat until you were faced with one –Loki did flit through Natasha's mind even if it was unsolicited- it was a concern.
Not the trifling concern. "I'm more concerned with what was powerful enough to keep him in that state. The records go back before Thor was exiled to Earth."
Steve jumped on that. "Loki isn't Loki, what makes us think this guy's any different? What happened could have been in self- defense." There's his puppy-dog hopeful look, things must be serious to pull that one out, Nat grinned to herself but schooled her reaction to Steve's explanation and the answer it provoked.
Sigyn met Steve's eyes squarely. "Loki is still there." Anger would have been less alarming than her composure. Natasha stood, the movement reflexively attracting Sigyns eyes.
Tony spoke first, hands held up. "Okay, before a catfight begins –not that I wouldn't mind- there's been enough destruction of my property. Bruce buddy, can you go check her out, "Tony swept a hand at Sigyn and raised a brow when it looked as though Thor would object. "Go with Point Break, but I'm going to go check on the Jotun we already have in custody."
Nat was sure on any other day Thor would have bashed Stark's head in for that comment but Sigyn had put a hand on his arm.
Clint stumbled while getting up and Cassie was on that like cowboys were on Texas. Natasha took his phone and promised to find him when Fury rang back.
She and Steve were left standing there when the elevator doors closed, exhaustion kicking Natasha to reseat herself on the demolished couch.
Steve crossed his arms. "Do you think Loki meant to hurt anyone in the beginning?"
What an out of the blue question but Natasha had heard worse from the mouths of worse people than Steve. Not that Captain America question the acts of the clinically insane was out of order, it was the tone.
Steve was regretting something. "I believe he knew some would get hurt, just… not who. Steve what's going on in that block of ice you've got for a head?"
Her words were joke but not her reasons for asking. Steve rarely looked so troubled, especially regarding someone still in the serial killer category.
Clint's phone went off, and Steve departed with mumbled, "You'd better get that."
It went to voicemail. She didn't recognize the number.
Sigyn had to keep reminding herself, Loki's not there. His physical position was clear, still on the medical floor. It was his standing on the rest that had Sigyn pensive while the others spoke of their next move and what to do with the awakening Jotun.
In Asgard, children were told tales of battles where afterwards, the warriors who fought them changed. The words still stuck in Sigyn's mind that their eyes were vacant of their souls, which had travelled to Valhalla before their bodies expired. Limbs empty of the robust life they had lived. Void of what had made them great warriors. Simply not there, lost in the ether of past and present.
Sigyn ground her teeth while conversation carried on around her, raised voices and gestures she couldn't bring herself to understand. Her head finally hurt as much as her memories caused her chest to burn.
Loki is not there.
He was faded, the lustre of who he was being worn like a river eroding stone. The warriors in those tales had been washed away down the river, but not Loki. He had not come close in the years she'd known him, if anything; Loki had been the one wearing them down.
"If it is the same man, we must bring him to Asgard for justice."
Sigyn did not say anything to Thor's logic. It was true and just, but what would Asgard do? They had already executed the criminal as far as they were concerned. "Sigyn it is your choice."
"It is not. Odin punished the attacker. There must have been a mistake. We should...return with him."
"A mistake?" Barton remained open mouthed.
Banner seemed to agree. "If it was a mistake…"
"You doubt it was? For all of the Allfather's flaws, he would not have let the would-be murderer of his sons live." Sigyn was ashamed for standing up for Odin for all the trouble he had caused and the hurt in Thor's eyes then. Sigyn blamed her head injury for wanting to think the best of Odin despite the evidence stacked against him on that count. His love for his sons then outweighed what had transpired more recently in Sigyn's mind.
Thor seemed want to argue on every point. "By his own ruling he condemned Loki to a worse fate than death."
Allowing Loki to rot in confinement was not a worse fate until Sigyn remembered what other punishments there must have been in consideration by Odin and the Council.
Still she tried to reign in his accusations. "Thor…"
"Odin is no fool." That was the problem. If the Allfather was a fool-king, then his actions could be dismissed as mistakes, misjudgements. Considering Odin was a calculating, intelligent ruler, Sigyn was beginning to doubt he had let the traitor walk after learning what she and Sif had in that cave.
"Again this might be obvious to everyone from alien planets, but what happened? Who is this guy?" Barton had pointed to one of the security shots JARVIS had pulled up of SHIELDS intensive care ward. It was a still frame of the man lying in a coma, radiation spikes all around with Barton, Romanoff and Sigyn all vying for a position around the bed as the man had struggled. His face was blurred and skin tinged blue.
"His name was… is…" Sigyn scrambled for the right words. Her recollection of that time was a mosaic of feeble glass. "Aric turned out to be a hired assassin from Jotunheim and of royal blood who in turn hired two men from Alfheim. It was a guise and evidently started many problems between Asgard and Alfheim."
Barton whistled. "Why did they want Thor and his brother dead?" He meant the Jotuns, surely, but in the middle of thinking up how to explain the myriad complicated history of Jotunheim it was Rogers who saved her the explanation.
"It's no different than the Tudors and Stuarts, Clint. Although… it is different I guess…"
Sigyn looked to Thor, Let's not mention Loki is of royal blood as well. Her glare seemed to get the message across, for Thor tarried in breaking up the meandering conversation about the history of England.
Eventually JARVIS chimed in. "Doctor Williams, your presence is requested on the medical floor."
"That's going to give you a headache, don't say I didn't warn you."
"If I believed you were terribly concerned with my welfare I might have gone back to bed."
"Well it wouldn't be a terrible idea." Tony didn't let his eyes linger on the very obviously struggling God of Mischief who had decided, upon hearing the mission didn't go so peachy, to get out of bed and walk halfway down the hall.
Tony put the bad of sterilized sutures he had made especially for Captain America in mind- the damn grandpa kept somehow ripping the normal ones for normal people- on the hall table and stood in the middle, arms crossed. He may not like that Loki was freeloading in his home but he damn well wouldn't have him further his stay by injuring himself more.
"You must be so pleased with yourself; you almost got to the elevator." He sighed. The sweat coalescing on his forehead was a dead giveaway if the shaking hand didn't assure Tony he'd collapse at any moment.
Loki leant against the crutch he had half a good mind to grab. He was out of breath and so Tony waited the appropriate amount of time to let him retort, but nothing came.
Loki just kept looking at the floor, clenching his fist.
"Okay," Now Tony was worried he'd return to the mentally unstable aspect of his personality and that was easier to handle when there was a bed and restraints.
"JARVIS," to say he was a little concerned was okay.
Before JARVIS responded came a growl, "Stark," Loki was fighting whatever drugs Cassie had attempted to sedate him with earlier.
The shock of hearing the crash a few floors above must have pulled Loki out of his delusions far enough to realize nothing should be crashing into the building or breaking glass.
Holy shit he's worried about her. Wait, why do I care?
"Look Die Hard, I won't stop you from trying to get upstairs, but I'm not going to help. I've got better things to do than waste- woah, woah," Tony took three steps towards Loki as soon as the god began struggling to stay upright and collided sideways into the wall. Tony knew it was serious when Loki didn't even react to being touched. The past few weeks he had shied away from all physical contact and it even took Thor a few hours to coerce Loki into being examined by Cassie.
Guided to the chair Loki finally looked him in the eyes with an unfocused glare but nothing else.
JARVIS saved him from standing awkwardly in the hall, "Sir, Doctor Williams has been informed of Mr. Odinson's condition and is on her way."
"Okay, that takes care of that."
Loki kept glaring at him.
"Okay I get it." When did I start indulging psychopaths? "How's Sigyn, JARVIS?"
"Miss Sigyn is recovering well. She is currently speaking with Mr Odinson, Doctor Banner and Captain Rogers awaiting your own arrival, Sir."
Loki's response was to blink.
Tony couldn't help but roll his eyes and swallow his frustration. "Glad you're so relieved."
It had been a few hours of sitting in the hall where Loki refused to move from, claiming that if he were to return to the bed mass murder was not far from his mind. Cassie allowed it, and Steve watched as she administered fluids with an IV pump while he sat there, a blanket around him.
He wouldn't make eye contact, and would only answer Thor who always spoke first.
Any progress they made was gone. Suddenly it was like looking at the Loki from the year prior and Steve felt vilified to stand there by the elevator looking casual but feeling anything but, muscles tense. He unclenched his fist, trying to relax once Cassie sidled up to him.
"Okay I get you don't like the guy but I'm positive he refuses the more comfortable bed because he can't stand. He's too weak. I doubt he'll throw a coup." Contrary to her words Cassie was fiddling with her pen in her coat pocket, eyes not staying on anything more than a few seconds and kept nervously returning to the very man she was trying to assure Steve about.
"How's Sigyn?"
"I have a feeling she's survived worse with less medical assistance. I'm guessing in some sort of cave."
Steve had nothing to say to that. He was a culprit of that himself from time to time.
His ear comm began buzzing and he touched a finger to it.
It was Natasha, who had promptly vanished after they recounted what had happened on the Helicarrier and explained why waiting for his and Clint's evacuation plan didn't pan out.
"Stark says to put Loki in a wheelchair and bring him to the lab, something's up."
A/N: I won't give you an exact date for the next chapter but expect it within the next two weeks. I'm starting to catch up! Hope you enjoyed -G